For this issue we asked the following…

“Some sections review their subs annually, but what happens in your section? Does what your young people pay cover the costs of running your programme?”

In response to this a number of leaders have shared their thoughts.

“Our subs for the session are currently set at £105 a year for Company Section members if paid in two parts, or £95 if paid in full at the start of the session. We find that most of our members pay up front for the session and are able to gift aid this amount, resulting in us receiving an extra £23.75 back from the Government. We have increased our fees significantly across all sections in the past 5 years, this has helped us improve the quality of our programme, and decrease the need for us to run fundraising events to support the Company programme. We offer financial assistance for any young person who could not afford to pay these fees, having never turned a young person away. There are also lots of other benefits in collecting subs up front rather than weekly.”

Chris Norman, 10^th Enfield

“We ask the members to pay termly, September, January and April (post Easter). The subs are currently £20 per term. With the launch of OBM the majority of parents are opting for Direct Debit and we are in the process of setting up for Gift Aid contributions.”

Derick Lawson, 1^st Chester-le-Street BB

“We have only changed our subs once in the last 10 years, going from £1 a night to £1.50. If parents choose to pay in advance but then aren’t there for the evening we roll their subs forward to another week. Equally, if a family can’t afford to pay one week we encourage them to come anyway – we’re not there to make money and feel Christ would rather we wrote off the cost than turned families away. At the moment our subs cover costs but we’re actively fundraising as this is becoming more of a strain as we look to run more varied activities.”

Jonathan Haddock, 1^st Canterbury